How do you cook pears?

Pears can be poached, braised, baked, stewed and caramelized in a variety of recipes. Some pear recipes include vanilla poached pears, roasted pears with blue cheese and pear soup. Vanilla poached pears are made with a combination of white wine, pears, vanilla beans and sugar.

Combine 1 bottle Riesling, 1 cup water, 3/4 cup vanilla sugar and 1 vanilla bean with its pulp scraped in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil. Core 4 Bartlett pears from the bottom, leaving the stem intact. Add the pears to the liquid and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 30 minutes.

Keep the liquid simmering, and remove the pears with a slotted spoon to a serving dish. Refrigerate the pears. Remove the vanilla bean and scrapings from the liquid. Raise the heat, and reduce the syrup to 1 cup of liquid. Don't let the syrup turn brown.

Pour the syrup into a container, and chill for an hour. Remove the pears and the sauce from the refrigerator. Ladle the sauce over the pears, and serve.

Turn the dish into a sweet and savory meal by combining it with blue cheese bruschetta. Broil small slices of walnut bread topped with unsalted butter and crumbled blue cheese until toasted.